Part 3 – The Man She Met

Ai's eyes widened, she remembered those voices! Those were the two guards that were shouting at her when she made her escape. Then she heard it louder and clearer, "Lady Ai! There you are! We've been searching for you all over! Now come back." They were kind of in the distance, but they were in sight and coming closer at a fast speed.

Ai got up and was about to run, but then Mahkio turned into his true form – A Great Moth. Ai knew what to do already, she jumped onto Mahkio's back and he flew into the sky with great speed. She heard the guards shouting, but she couldn't tell what they were saying.

"No! We lost her again! What are we going to tell the Lord?"

"How the hell should I know?! Who was that stupid demon anyway?" … Both the guards sighed,

"Let's just hope the Lord is generous enough to make the punishment something that isn't be-heading…"

Mahkio landed and Ai got off his back, "Thank you so much Mahkio, I don't know if I would have been so lucky to escape again by myself."

"I will have to leave you now, I will come and visit you some other time, but I have to go get some more information."

"Yes, good luck with that!"

Mahkio turned back into his small butterfly form and flew into the sky. Ai watched as he flew off, and through the trees, until he was out of sight. Ai felt relieved, what if Mahkio wasn't there? What would have happened to her? She was so grateful to have him around. She thought to herself, 'I guess, I made a friend?'

Ai noticed it was late, so she decided to go look for a hot spring then find a nice cozy place to sleep. Unfortunately, hot springs are hard to come by. But maybe she will find one if she was lucky, she has been lucky a lot lately.

Ai noticed that she was gripping her basket really tightly, it must be because she was kind of scared and she was holding onto it without exactly noticing, she was just glad she didn't leave it behind. That would be sad, her basket is useful. And for some reason she just likes to have it in her possession.

There was a cherry blossom tree in the distance; she wondered what that would be doing in the forest. Maybe there are just a few in the area. Then an idea came to her, she ran over to the tree and started picking the cherry blossoms, filling her basket with them.

After a bit, her basket was almost full. Ai thought to herself, "I guess that's all I'll need." She started walking off again, with a basket full of cherry blossoms. She was a beautiful sight to see at night, she just seemed so pretty carrying her little basket walking through the night.

"Oh my goodness!" Ai said out loud, kind of to herself though, there was a hot spring nearby, she had been having so much luck lately. She smiled and started sprinkling the cherry blossoms and the in the water. The water smelt like cherry blossoms now, and it just seemed more peaceful to bathe in.

After removing her clothing she got into the hot spring, 'This feels so good…' Ai thought to herself. She sat in the water; she looked very calm, and relaxed. She had her eyes closed. Some of her hair was swimming around her.

She heard voices again, they sounded like men. But they weren't the guards; she tried to listen to what they were saying. She could kind of make out what they were saying.

"Do you think she's sleeping?"

"Yeah I think so."

Ai lightly opened one of her eyes to see who these men were.

"Her eyes are green!"

"She's beautiful…" Ai spotted them. She had to say something.

"It is very disrespectful to spy on a lady when she is bathing you know." She had opened her eyes all the way by now, revealing her full features. The men looked shocked to hear her voice.

"Yeah, but what are you going to do about it? You're just a woman."

Ai was starting to get scared now; Mahkio wasn't here to save her this time, so she would have to figure this one out herself. But how would she get them to leave?

"Why don't you come out?" Ai had a look of disgust on her face.

"Like I would when you're there!" She ducked underwater and swam to the edge of the hot spring and grabbed her basket. She lifted her head out of the water; some of her hair was stuck to her face. "Take this you perverts!" Then Ai threw her basket at them. It hit one of them in the head; it didn't seem to do much beside anger him.

"You'll regret that, wench…"

Then both the men started walking towards her, she couldn't give herself to those losers! But what could she do. She didn't have any weapons and her basket attack didn't help at all. Ai started trembling.

Then all of a sudden something that looked like a whip made of neon green light slashed through both of them, at least that's what she thought it might have been… She wasn't too sure. Ai was in shock, her eyes wide. She saw where the whip came from; it was a very strange looking man… A demon maybe?

But she only saw the back of him, he was turning to walk away, she only saw the front of him for a second or two. He had long silver hair, and he was very tall. She heard him say something to himself. "Humans are disgusting…"

"Wait!" She shouted as she quickly pulled her clothes on and ran up to him. But he just ignored Ai, and continued walking. "Wait! I just want to thank you!" He stopped for a moment, still not facing her "I do not need your thanks." Then he walked off, and was gone.

Ai was irritated, how rude. 'Well, at least he saved me.' She thought to herself. Ai went to go retrieve her basket; she walked over to where she threw it. After she picked it up she walked over to the men. They were completely sliced! Such power that man had. If only she had a chance to talk to him. He seems like he would be hard to talk to though.

She decided Mahkio might know about him, he knew about her. He seemed like he would be a little more known than her. She thought to herself, 'I guess I'll ask him about him next time I see him.'

Ai was now on her way to find somewhere to sleep, she started walking so she could look. After a while she stumbled across a patch of soft fresh grass, it looked comfortable enough, so she made herself cozy there and slowly fell asleep.